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Definition of rhinoceros in US English:

rhinoceros

nounPlural rhinoceroses

A large, heavily built plant-eating mammal with one or two horns on the nose and thick folded skin, native to Africa and southern Asia. All kinds have become endangered through hunting.

Family Rhinocerotidae: four genera and five species

‘During the Pleistocene, herds of giant wombats the size of a rhinoceros roamed the plains of southern Australia.’

‘Rabinowitz hoped to find remaining pockets of additional charismatic fauna - elephants, tigers, and rhinoceroses - and to set up a biological reserve to protect them, but he soon learned that these large mammals had disappeared.’

‘Elephants, tigers and rhinoceroses are successfully bred at the Way Kambas National Park, which is also famous for its elephant training school.’

‘The skin of a rhinoceros, the composure of a Hindu sacred cow and the patience of a saint - just three qualities you'd need to do Robert Ogier's job.’

‘Another unusual mammal found at Chilga is the arsinoithere, which looks like a larger version of a modern rhinoceros, but actually evolved independently of rhinos, said Rasmussen.’

‘Without their commanding horn the rhinoceros present a forlorn image.’

‘The night safari represents a coup for the Thai government, which has managed to secure over 300 animals from Kenya, including lions, rhinoceroses, and elephants to populate the project.’

‘Dartford Museum in Market Street, houses some remains of animals found in the area including woolly mammoths and rhinoceroses.’

‘At one point Bill suggested that the reason rhinoceroses' horns have been ground up for years and used as an ancient form of Viagra was, well, the shape of the rhino's horn.’

‘The Ceratopsian dinosaurs (Triceratops, etc) were the rhinoceroses of the dinosaur world, their formidable horns at least appear to be ample protection against even the largest and fiercest carnivores.’

‘The alteration and fragmentation of existing habitats ensures that any future radiation of mammals, for instance, will not include large forms such as rhinoceroses, apes and big cats.’

‘But I remember she said there was a hippopotamus and a rhinoceros.’

‘He asked for a ‘highly intelligent workaholic with skin like a rhinoceros and the ability to work 24 hours a day while juggling 20 balls in the air.’’

‘You've got to have a hide as thick as a rhinoceros to carry on and pretend nothing has happened.’

‘A large light-blue horn stood out of the middle of his forehead, and it was shaped like a rhinoceros' horn.’

‘When Japheth Boyce was a tyke in South Dakota, he liked to scrabble around in the barren, rocky ground of the Badlands, hunting for fossils of saber-toothed tigers, rhinoceroses and three-toed horses the size of golden retrievers.’

‘The soldiers allegedly used the stolen money to buy items as diverse as cameras and rhinoceros horns, the officials said.’

‘O'Connell-Rodwell and her colleagues have also begun to study the nuances of elephant signals to distinguish them from the footsteps of rhinoceroses or lions.’

‘When the vessel was first discovered last year, it contained the leg bone of a tapir, a medium-size mammal related to both the horse and the rhinoceros.’

‘Once upon a time, ground sloths or camels or even ancestral rhinoceroses may have inhabited your part of the country.’